TALLAHASSEE— Cities may have less control over agricultural lands if a bill in the House keeps moving forward. The legislation passed through committee Tuesday, but not without some amending.

The bill (HB203) would remove cities’ regulatory authority over these lands, which are overseen by the state and federal government.

“This is a very important bill,” Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, told the committee.

The bill prevents “duplication of regulations” on farming operations on lands classified as agriculture, said Beshears, who is sponsoring the bill. State and federal regulations already cover those operations, he said.

Current law protects these businesses from county regulations, but not city regulations. And cities have been annexing more and more agricultural lands, Beshears said.

And these cities are charging burdensome and unnecessary fees, as well as forcing the businesses to take out unneeded permits, Beshears said.

“Simply put, we’re trying to protect existing farming operations from being charged any excess fees (that) they shouldn’t be having to pay twice,” he said.

Beshears’ bill would expand the law’s current language, prohibiting not just counties, but any “governmental entity” from regulating operations on agricultural lands.

Also the bill would exempt water management districts from the any “governmental entity” definition. That amendment was added in committee Tuesday.

As expected, the Florida League of Cities took issue with the bill, saying it’s too broad.

“We have some concerns with the overall breadth of the language as amended,” said Ryan Matthews.

But the league is working with Beshears on the bill, Matthews said. The league would like to clear up duplicate fees without statewide legislation, he said.

A Florida Association of Counties representative gave similar testimony, saying the bill was too expansive.

Right now there are no related bills in the Senate.

Also during the hearing, Beshears took some freshman-legislator hazing, which is expected when lawmakers present their first bill.

“I see Rep. Beshears has taken my advice to go up front and present his first bill from the podium,” Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, joked. “Wise choice Rep. Beshears.”

Another colleague kidded him about his name.

“I must apologize. I thought your last name was Halsey, but it’s Beshears — Rep. B-shears,” said Rep. Tom Goodson, R-Titusville.

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